Zombie horde

Ethan walked among the shelves, picking up various types of food and drinks, placing everything in his bag until it was full.

After he finished gathering supplies, Ethan didn't leave immediately. He sat on one of the debris that had fallen from the ceiling and opened his interface.

"Congratulations, you've leveled up."

"Choose your reward for leveling up:

Abilities:

Larvae Infestation

Intimidating Gaze

Bone Strengthening

+5 free attribute points

1 skill point"

Description:

Larvae Infestation: Makes the target feel as if thousands of larvae are crawling inside their skin. Enemies with low willpower will start itching uncontrollably, while those with strong willpower will experience a slight loss of focus. Cost - 95 mp

Intimidating Gaze: When enemies look into your eyes, they will enter a state of paralysis for a few seconds due to fear. Cost - 20 mp

Bone Strengthening: Strengthens the bones of the user's body or any other bone targeted by this ability. Cost - 50 mp

(Note: The first two abilities only work on living targets.)

After reading all the ability descriptions, Ethan quickly decided which one he would choose.

"I'll take Bone Strengthening, and with the skill point, I'll get the Bone Blade. That way, I can have a much stronger weapon and use it on my skeletons. The other abilities would certainly be useful in fighting other people, but my goal is to kill as many zombies as possible and get stronger," he thought. He then selected the Bone Strengthening ability.

"Congratulations, you have successfully learned a new skill."

Ethan smiled and continued with his plan, opening the skills list.

Owned Skills:

Summon Skeletons

Bone Strengthening

Skills to Buy:

Bone Blade = 1 sp

Communication with the Dead = 1 sp

Larvae Infestation = 1 sp

Intimidating Gaze = 1 sp

Seeing the cost next to each ability, Ethan realized it might not be so easy to learn two abilities every two levels. Perhaps in the future, he would have to save points to acquire an ability he hadn't chosen.

Ethan sighed and hesitated for a moment but ultimately bought the Bone Blade ability.

After choosing the skill, he got up and left the market, waving to the family of three who were still gathering supplies, briefly pausing to wave back.

"I hope they can survive, but now I need to get stronger. The stronger I am, the better. I don't know what's going to happen next - zombies, earthquakes, communication cut off, no internet. I don't know how long the power and water supply will last, but it will eventually run out," Ethan reflected on the situation, not feeling optimistic about what was to come.

While Ethan was lost in thought, the sound of gunfire rang out in the streets, waking him from his stupor. The gunshots were coming from the street ahead, and Ethan quickly realized where they were from.

Yes, the shots were coming directly from the street where he had encountered that huge horde earlier.

At that moment, he spotted several zombies heading in that direction.

Another burst of shots was fired, and more and more zombies appeared, moving toward the noise.

Ethan's curiosity was piqued.

"Damn, with all those shots, there must be more than one person gathered. I can use this to try and ambush the zombies heading in that direction. If anything goes wrong, I can lure the zombies away using my skeletons and escape quietly." After weighing the pros and cons, Ethan decided to go in that direction again.

As he walked toward the street and looked around carefully, he realized that some houses still had some movement inside, but people were probably too afraid to come out.

Ethan continued to walk until he was very close to the street where the zombie horde was located. At that moment, some zombies appeared in the middle of the road.

Ethan observed silently, knowing there was no risk of being caught because he was walking very close to the houses, making as little noise as possible.

"Five zombies up ahead. I think I can handle them. Now that I'm at level 3, I can summon another skeleton, and with my strength points, I can kill a zombie with a single blow." Ethan began to summon a new skeleton in the same way as before, and it emerged from the circle he formed in front of him.

As soon as the skeleton was summoned, Ethan gave them orders, and his skeletons advanced toward the zombies.

3 against 5.

It didn't seem like a fair battle, but as the skeletons got closer, Ethan used his new ability three times, once on each skeleton. A light shone on the skeletons' bones and quickly disappeared.

The interface appeared in front of him, showing the new attributes of the skeletons.

Normal Skeleton:

Strength 3 > 5

Dexterity 4 > 6

Resistance 4 > 6

All his skeletons had gained 2 more points in each attribute, making them stronger. At that moment, the skeletons collided with the zombies.

Flinging the zombies back a bit, Ethan ordered his skeletons to attack forcefully, targeting the skulls of the zombies who were trying to bite with all their might.

Ignoring the bites, the skeletons punched hard toward the zombies' heads, making them fall from the impact.

Now, only two zombies remained standing, and they lunged at the skeletons, trying to devour their bones. One of them managed to tear off an arm from one of the skeletons, but the skeleton didn't seem to mind and continued attacking the zombie's head.

After a few blows, the zombie's skull couldn't withstand the pressure, and it finally crushed. Two zombies were killed, leaving a 3x3 battle.

The skeleton that had lost its arm bent down to pick up its severed limb but didn't reattach it; instead, it used it as a weapon, quickly defeating another zombie, while the other skeletons were still attacking the remaining ones.

Ethan was surprised to see his skeleton using its severed arm as a weapon. He didn't expect that.

After a few more seconds, all the zombies had been defeated, and the skeletons returned to Ethan.

"Your skeletons defeated 5 zombies + 50 exp."

Watching his experience points increase, he opened the interface to see how much more he needed for the next level.

"60/90 for the next level."

"I thought the amount of experience required would increase like in games, but there was only an increase of 20 each time I leveled up. Well, at least I'll be able to strengthen myself faster. Nothing to complain about," Ethan thought. There were a few things he wanted to understand about his system and everything that was happening, but there simply wasn't any source of information available to him.

So, he temporarily set aside those questions.

Ethan looked at the zombie corpses and hesitated for a moment.

"Damn, I have the Bone Blade ability, but do I have to remove it from these bodies?" Ethan shuddered at the thought.

"I can't just leave it. It will be a very good weapon for me, and for my skeletons, especially since one of my skeletons used its own arm to fight."

After hesitating for a while, Ethan turned and gave orders to his skeletons, who promptly began to remove the skin, tendons, and muscles from the zombies' legs, taking the femurs from the five zombies.

Ethan turned away to avoid looking at the gruesome scene, but he could still hear the sounds. Surprisingly, despite his initial fear and apprehension, he felt nothing but a cold, negative energy coursing through him. It was as if the bodies were nothing more than materials to him.

"When did I start thinking like this?" Ethan finally realized that his reaction seemed abnormal, not just now, but from the very beginning of everything. He didn't feel fear, terror, or disgust. He was happy when he gained the system and became a Necromancer, but he hadn't had time to process it before he was hunting zombies.

Ethan tried to think about what might have changed him in this way, but he couldn't reach a conclusion. Perhaps it had something to do with the negative energy within him that had transformed him into a colder person to adapt to being a Necromancer, but there was no certainty.

While Ethan was pondering these thoughts, his skeletons had finished removing all the femurs from the corpses and were standing in front of him, holding them all in their hands.

Ten femurs were now before Ethan, and he felt excited. Finally, he would have a weapon for himself and his skeletons, with some spares left over.

Ethan picked up the first femur and used his Bone Blade ability. The femur began to morph, becoming thinner and larger with a curved, sharp edge.

"Bone Blade ability used - 10 exp."

New item obtained: Bone Blade.

50 damage

Durability 80

Description: A very sharp blade made from a human femur in the shape of a scimitar, perfect for close combat, with decent durability.

Special effect: When a Necromancer uses this blade, they can harness the traces of negative energy within the blade to affect their enemies, applying a weakness effect.

Ethan was thrilled; this weapon would be very useful. Now he had noticed a difference; the staff he had been using all this time had no description, which left him even more confused about the system.

"Well, sooner or later, we'll find out. Now let's get to work." Despite creating and then checking his weapon, not a single minute had passed. So he immediately started making the others right there.

Three minutes later, all the blades were made.

*9 bone blades obtained - 90 mp*

All with the same descriptions. He then threw two for each skeleton, which they caught, demonstrating that they could indeed use weapons.

There were still four blades left, and he took two for himself and placed the rest in the backpack on his back.

Ethan decided to continue with his round of zombie kills with his new equipment. Everything would be easier now.

Walking further, Ethan was finally on the street where the zombies were, and since then, there had been no more shots, indicating that no new zombies were arriving.

However, there were already enough zombies to fill a football field.

Ethan sighed. As he was about to turn his back to look for stray zombies, he noticed some people on top of a large house right above the zombies.

He quickly discovered where the shots had come from and could see several weapons on the roof, probably all empty since everyone had a look of despair.

He decided to try to communicate with them or help. It seemed they wouldn't easily leave that place.

Examining the street, he saw several houses nearby, with one having stairs in a narrow alley that was clear, providing access to the roof, very close to that house. After thinking of a plan, he turned to his skeletons and requested one bone blade from each, which they quickly handed over.

After storing them in his bag, Ethan stepped back and ordered the skeleton with two blades to follow him, the one that had used its arm as a weapon before. After distancing himself sufficiently, Ethan ordered his two skeletons to draw the zombies' attention and kill as many as possible.

The skeletons didn't waste any time and began making noise by clashing bones together. The large zombie horde turned to see what was causing the commotion and realized something was moving in front of them. The horde started moving towards the skeletons, still making noise.

While the skeletons attracted the zombies' attention, Ethan had hidden behind a broken-down car. He watched in silence as the zombie horde passed by.

After 10 minutes, the zombies were drawn in another direction. At that moment, Ethan got up and walked towards the house he had spotted, taking advantage of the fact that his skeletons had drawn away most of the zombies, or so he thought.

As he turned into the alley leading to the house's stairs, a zombie suddenly appeared in front of him. It was so sudden that he couldn't react, but the skeleton with him swiftly sliced off the zombie's head with the bone blade. Ethan was amazed at how sharp the bone blade was.

*Your skeleton killed a zombie +10 exp*

Ethan let out a sigh of relief. 'I have to pay more attention to my surroundings. That was a stupid mistake.'

With that in mind, Ethan continued his plan, being much more careful and ready to decapitate any zombies that appeared, but no more surprises occurred.

He then climbed the stairs, leaving the skeleton to guard his bag and weapons. After a few seconds, he was on the roof of the house, right next to the group of people.

There were three men and four women. One of the men was wearing a police uniform, while the other two were dressed as firefighters. They were all surprised to see him; they hadn't expected anyone else to be nearby. Even after the zombie horde had passed, they hadn't dared to descend.

"Hello, everyone," Ethan took the initiative to speak.

They all looked at him, and the police officer stepped forward. "Hello, friend. Are you looking for help too? I'm sorry to say we're out of ammunition, and it's up to us now to fight. But any help will be appreciated. More people will make it easier for us to defend ourselves against these zombies."

'He seems to know they're zombies. I believe they've leveled up a lot since they've killed many zombies with those weapons,' Ethan thought as he turned to look at the many zombie bodies on the ground.

"Thanks for the invitation, friend, but I'm not looking for help at the moment," Ethan declined. With his skeletons, he didn't need to travel in a group; he was his own group, and he and his skeletons were undoubtedly stronger and more loyal.

The group was surprised; they hadn't expected the young man to decline. However, they didn't hold it against him, as another person would mean more food resources.

"All right, but I thought you went to all this trouble to come up here and join us. Since you're not, that's fine. You came up from down there; can you tell us if there are still a lot of zombies on the streets?"

"Not many. I only killed one to get up here. It's definitely safer to leave now and do it quietly."

"Thanks for the information," the police officer sighed and thanked him.

"Oh, by the way, how are the police, the army? Did the president take any action?" Ethan asked.

"The police were devastated in a way. Many turned into these zombies, and I believe it's the same everywhere. I saw with my own eyes my colleagues succumbing to this madness and killing anything in their way. I even saw a huge monster that looked like a zombie dog. It was not small at all and very ferocious, killing every human and even zombies it encountered." The police officer began to provide details of everything he had seen since the incident a few hours ago.

Ethan listened attentively but wasn't very surprised; somehow, he had expected that this apocalypse wouldn't be just about zombies.